Last week Doctor Who got an audience of 1.55 million and Copper over a million and given the market BBC America is in it is impressive.

These are what they call ‘live’ figures. If we look at the first episode of Copper it had a figure of 1.8 million but after 7 days, taking in to account people watching what they had recorded, that figure rose to almost 2.8 million.

Over in the UK Doctor Who‘s premiere season 7 episode, “Asylum of the Daleks”, got an initial figure of 6.8 million. Which is considered good but not impressive.

The UK media is still dominated by the Olympics and it is having a late summer so these factors may have depressed the ratings a little. Again these are the ‘live’ figures and Doctor Who is one of the most popular show’s on BBC’s iPlayer as well being recorded for later viewing.

Doctor Who’s season premiere delivered BBC AMERICA’s highest-rated telecast ever in Live + Same Day and #1 in cable in its time slot on Saturday, September 1

COPPER’s series premiere delivered BBC AMERICA’s highest-rated telecast ever in Live +7 Day on Sunday, August 19

New York – September 5, 2012 – Before the summer officially came to a close, BBC AMERICA’s Doctor Who and COPPER earned record ratings for the channel. The all-new season of BBC AMERICA’s hit sci-fi series Doctor Who, which premiered on Saturday, September 1, delivered the channel’s highest-rated, most-watched telecast ever in Live + Same Day. Doctor Who delivered 1.555 million viewers and 723,000 A25-54. The series ranked #1 in cable, excluding sports, among A25-54 in the Saturday 9:00pm-10:00pm time slot.* The Doctor Who premiere and the third episode of BBC AMERICA’s first original series COPPER helped BBC AMERICA achieve its highest-rated weekend ever.

Last month, the series premiere of COPPER delivered the channel’s highest-rated telecast ever in Live+7 Day total viewers. On Sunday, August 19 at 10:00pm ET, the premiere episode delivered 1.805 million total viewers and 859,000 among A25-54 in Live+7 Day. Based on Live+7 Day, COPPER’s first episode delivered a cumulative 2.754 million total viewers and 1.273 million A25-54.** COPPER continues to be BBC AMERICA’s highest rated drama ever, delivering over a million total viewers each week.

Perry Simon, General Manager, Channels, BBC Worldwide America commented: “The one-two punch of our returning hit series Doctor Who and our first original drama COPPER combined to set a new weekend ratings record and deliver our most watched telecasts in our history. Taken together with our most-ever Emmy® nominations and our increased distribution, it feels like BBC AMERICA is clearly a network on the move.”

The new season of Doctor Who, from lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat and executive producer Caroline Skinner, sees the Doctor (Matt Smith), his companions Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill) and numerous friends on their latest escapades through space and time. The premiere sees them kidnapped by the Doctor’s oldest foe, The Daleks, and in the coming episodes they’ll save a spaceship full of dinosaurs, don Stetsons in a Wild Wild West adventure, puzzle an unexpected invasion of Earth and, in the mid-season finale, race against time through the streets of Manhattan for Amy and Rory’s heart-breaking farewell. Doctor Who is a BBC Cymru Wales Production for BBC One. Doctor Who premieres every Saturday, 9:00pm ET as part of Supernatural Saturday.

COPPER, from executive producers Academy Award®-winner Barry Levinson, Emmy®-winner Tom Fontana, Academy Award®-nominee Will Rokos and Cineflix Studios President, Christina Wayne, follows Detective Kevin Corcoran (Tom Weston-Jones), a rugged Irish immigrant cop, as he seeks justice for the powerless in 1864 New York City. COPPER is a Cineflix (Copper) Inc. production in association with BBC AMERICA. COPPER is created by Tom Fontana and Will Rokos. Executive producers include Levinson, Fontana, Rokos, Wayne, Jim Finnerty, Sherri Rufh, Sam Berliner, Sally Catto and Katherine Buck. In this Sunday’s episode, Corcoran uncovers a new piece of evidence that provides clues about his daughter’s mysterious death and wife’s disappearance. As he investigates the trail behind this new discovery, he finds a tragic personal link to a current murder investigation of one of Five Points’ most infamous women. Copper premieres every Sunday, 10:00pm ET.